GoPro's Bad Karma Leads To Hundreds Of Layoffs In Drone Division

When it comes to consumer drones, many people look to DJI for products like the Spark and the Mavic Pro. However, GoPro, which made a name for itself with action cameras, though that it could encroach into DJI's territory with its swanky Karma drone.

Well, things haven't exactly been going well for the company on the drone front. A fresh report from TechCrunch says that GoPro will lay off between 200 to 300 employees this week, with most of those dismissals coming from its aerial drone division.

According to a letter that the publication was able to obtain, GoPro says that its it taking this drastic movie to "better align our resources with business requirements". Although the layoffs will take effect immediately, the [former] employees will remain on the payroll until mid-February.

GoPro cut 15 percent of its staff in 2016 and killed off its nascent entertainment wing. In March 2017, GoPro announced another round of cuts, removing 17 percent of its workforce (270 jobs).

As for the Karma drone, it got off to a rocky start back in 2016. A month after launch, GoPro had to recall the drone after customers reported that they were losing power during flight, resulting in their drones falling out of the sky to an untimely death. During the announcement of the recall, it was revealed that only 2,500 drones had been sold up until that point.

GoPro rectified the problem, and the Karma went back on sale in February 2017. However, given these heavy layoffs in the drone division, we have the feeling that the Karma won't be around for much longer. GoPro’s future drone aspirations are also apparently up in the air.